Another Ganim ally joins Bridgeport’s payroll

By Brian Lockhart

Updated
5:36 pm EDT, Thursday, October 11, 2018

David Papandrea takes a picture of mayoral candidate and former Mayor Joe Ganim during a celebration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act at East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport in 2016. Papandrea, a supporter of Mayor Joe Ganim, has been hired as a data analyst for the Bridgeport public facilities department.

David Papandrea takes a picture of mayoral candidate and former Mayor Joe Ganim during a celebration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act at East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport in 2016. Papandrea, a

David Papandrea takes a picture of mayoral candidate and former Mayor Joe Ganim during a celebration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act at East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport in 2016. Papandrea, a supporter of Mayor Joe Ganim, has been hired as a data analyst for the Bridgeport public facilities department.

David Papandrea takes a picture of mayoral candidate and former Mayor Joe Ganim during a celebration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act at East End Baptist Tabernacle Church in Bridgeport in 2016. Papandrea, a

BRIDGEPORT — Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration has added yet another of hizzoner’s political operatives to the City Hall payroll.

David Papandrea, a former state Senate staffer-turned-Democratic-strategist who has worked on Ganim’s campaigns, starts next week as a $58,279 data analyst for the massive Public Facilities Department.

“I have several departments that come under me,” said Public Facilities Director John Ricci, another close Ganim ally. “He’s (Papandrea) going to be my liaison to those individual departments. He’s like a troubleshooter, basically.”

While the job is a non-union one and such so-called patronage positions have often been filled by political insiders or their relatives, Ricci insisted, and the Civil Service Office confirmed, that Papandrea competed for the opening.

“He went through a process,” Ricci said, adding the data coordinator job was advertised and several applicants screened. “He’s the one that came out first.”

According to Civil Service, the position was advertised on the city website from Sept. 7 until Sept. 14. Sixteen candidates applied and three received oral interviews, with the interview panel recommending Papandrea to Ricci. That panel consisted of representatives from the Public Facilities, Labor Relations and Human Resources departments.

“He’s a well-qualified guy,” Ricci added. “He’s got a Master of Business Administration and will be good at what I’m asking him to do on a daily basis.”

Papandrea helped Ganim, who was originally mayor from 1991 until 2003, wage a successful comeback campaign in 2015. Papandrea also was a late addition to Ganim’s failed 2018 gubernatorial bid, which ended with the mayor losing August’s Democratic primary to Ned Lamont.

Papandrea could not be reached for comment, but in his application letter, which Civil Service provided, he cited his college education, five years’ experience in marketing communications, relationship-building skills and appreciation for cultural diversity.

“I have dedicated much of my adult life to making Connecticut a great state in which to live and work,” Papandrea wrote. “I hope to continue down that path and do the same for the citizens of Bridgeport.”

While Ganim and his budget staff often speak about how the mayor, because of the city’s ongoing fiscal challenges, is slow to fill vacancies, the administration has found money for Ganim’s political allies.

East End activist and Democratic Town Committee member Charlie Coviello in February landed a $43,000 position as a zoning inspector just a few months before being a delegate for Ganim at May’s Democratic gubernatorial nominating convention.

Another town committee member and convention delegate — Steven Auerbach — was hired in January as a seasonal public facilities employee. Auerbach was then promoted to the $57,000 job of special projects coordinator overseeing the city’s parking meters and parking enforcement operation.

A city union has filed a grievance over Auerbach because he took over the duties of Peter Keogh, a retired cop who for years oversaw parking enforcement and was laid off in early July.

Upon returning to City Hall in 2015, Ganim rewarded many of his campaign supporters with high-paid, sometimes six-figure positions in Bridgeport government. Many of those same individuals volunteered for the mayor’s gubernatorial bid and/or wrote contribution checks to his 2018 campaign and, judging by history, will do so again when Ganim seeks re-election in 2019.